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Rarely do two starters on this stage come with as little experience as these two goalies, but that hasn't slowed them down.

Neither Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Matt Murray, pictured, nor San Jose Sharks' Martin Jones had started an NHL playoff game before this spring, but both have stood out for their respective teams. (Marcio Jose Sanchez / The Associated Press)

By Jonas SiegelThe Canadian Press

Mon., June 6, 2016

SAN JOSE, CALIF.—Twenty-nine starts.

Before the start of the regular season that was the combined NHL experience of the two eventual starting netminders of the Stanley Cup final, with all 29 of those starts owned by Martin Jones of the San Jose Sharks.

Jones and Matt Murray, his counterpart on the Pittsburgh Penguins, seem to be proving in these playoffs that experience may not be imperative to success.

Neither had started an NHL playoff game before this spring and yet both have shined brightly for their respective teams, especially Jones so far in the final.

“I think there’s times where you can lean on experiences and then there’s times where it works if it’s just your first time,” Sharks centre Logan Couture said. “I think both goalies have played well.”

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Rarely do two starters on this stage come with as little experience, both goalies starting in the NHL for the first time this season.

The most recent such case was 2010 when Antti Niemi and Michael Leighton squared off in the Cup final. Both endured a rocky experience, especially Leighton who was pulled twice in the Flyers six-game loss to the Blackhawks.

Cam Ward was really the last goalie to shine on this stage with so few NHL games of experience. He helped Carolina to a Cup as a rookie in 2006.

“I think sometimes no experience is better than some experience,” said Sharks backup goaltender James Reimer. “You have no level of failure. It’s like your first season. There’s no expectations.”

The quality of the team, too, could insulate an inexperienced goaltender, he said.

“If Murray was to play on a team that wasn’t as much of a contender as Pittsburgh then experience would play a bigger part because there’d be more chance of failure,” said Reimer. “The more experience you have the better you are at dealing with failure.”

An undrafted netminder out of North Vancouver, Jones kept his team close amid wobbly efforts in the first two games of the final, and was nearly unbeatable during a 42-shot barrage in Saturday’s Game 3.

The 26-year-old has faced 39 shots more than Murray so far in the final and is boasting a hearty .938 save percentage.

“He’s been so good for so long,” Couture said before Game 4. “Doug (Wilson) made a great move going to get him because he’s been awesome for us.”

Wilson, the Sharks general manager, flipped a first-round pick and a prospect to Boston for the rights to Jones, quickly signing him to a three-year contract.

It was a gamble, given that Jones had been only a backup to Jonathan Quick in Los Angeles, but one that’s eventually proven worthwhile.

“You never know how a guy is going to handle the starting job playing every night until you throw him into it,” said Sharks coach Pete DeBoer. “That was the million-dollar question.”

Jones matched Quick with a .918 save percentage during his first season as a starter and carries a .922 mark in the playoffs.

DeBoer became familiar with Jones during the 2015 world championships, where DeBoer served as an assistant for Canada. Though Jones played little at the tournament, DeBoer was impressed by his disposition and composure at practice, both elements which have shone through in these playoffs.

He then saw how Jones played when the Sharks were stumbling in the early-going this season, and how he bounced back from a poor night.

“It didn’t bother him,” DeBoer said. “I think that’s when we started to see what he was capable of.”

A 22-year-old rookie, Murray has displayed the same coolness, a prerequisite seemingly to thriving on this stage with little experience.

A star in the minors, the Thunder Bay, Ont., native has not exactly come out of nowhere, though like Jones his performance on the most pressure-packed stage of the Stanley Cup playoffs has cooled the supposed need for experience.

Murray has actually made more starts in the playoffs (18) than he had during the regular season of his first NHL season (13). He became the Penguins starter only because of Marc-Andre Fleury’s late-season concussion, performing so well this spring that Fleury’s remained relegated to the bench.

Solid under limited duress in Games 1 and 2, Murray struggled a bit in Game 3. Joel Ward’s game-tying blast in the third period managed to sneak through his body, while Joonas Donskoi’s attempt in overtime somehow evaded him high.

Penguins coach Mike Sullivan expressed little concern though ahead of Monday’s Game 4. He’d seen enough throughout these playoffs alone to know better.

“He’ll be fine,” said Sullivan. “The one thing we love about him is his makeup and his ability to move by circumstances that maybe aren’t what he had hoped they’d be, and just focus on the next game or the next save.”

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